It is Rais and Salahuddin who are merchandising Islam, not Hadi

TTF: A little over an hour ago, The Malay Mail Online published an editorial that quoted several Pakatan Harapan leaders who criticised Dato’ Seri Abdul Hadi Awang (see news item below). According to Amanah’s Salahuddin Ayub, an all Malay Cabinet as suggested by the PAS president was not rational as Islam “teaches tolerance and cooperation and embraces a diverse society.” According to PPBM’s Dato’ Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff, Hadi was “merchandising Islam for narrow politics.”

Let’s start with Salahuddin.

While it is true that Islam “teaches tolerance and cooperation and embraces a diverse society,” the religion also demands that its faithful resort to the most extreme of measures allowed by the Syaria if those measures are to uphold the sanctity of Islam and solidarity of the ummah.

The allowance, however, is contingent upon the fulfilment of certain conditions, among them being the requirement that those resorting to such extreme measures have exhausted all other manners of reproach and approach to deter threats to the religion of Islam and the solidarity of the ummah.

Now, the past two general elections have shown us that the majority of Chinese are with the DAP. That effectively means the Chinese are now synonymous to the party.

The DAP, on the other hand, has proven itself to be positively anti-Islam. Because of this, the Chinese have been emboldened to question the Islamic Penal Code and all matters material to the Islamic Syaria despite these matters being irrelevant to their community. Islam considers such behaviour as a threat to its sanctity and the solidarity of the ummah.

Under the circumstances, if PAS has exhausted all manners of reproach and approach to deter the DAP from posing such threats to Islam, it is allowed to seek an extreme measure to protect the sanctity of the religion and to uphold the solidarity of the ummah. As far as I remember, the party attempted several muzakarah’s with DAP leaders while it was still a component of the now defunct Pakatan Rakyat.

But instead of seeking dialogues with PAS to meet halfway on Islam, the DAP declared that Pakatan Rakyat no longer existed just because Hadi refused to go against Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, the head of Islam in Selangor. That effectively booted the DAP out of the opposition coalition.

So you see, as far as protecting the sanctity of Islam is concerned, having an all Malay Cabinet IS A GOOD IDEA, considering that Hadi DID ATTEMPT all manners of approach and reproach to deter the DAP from being a threat to Islam.

As for the solidarity part, PAS has taken positive steps to unite Muslims by agreeing to work with UMNO for the sake of the ummah. Nonetheless, Hadi’s idea can only be put to practice if the Chinese remain with the DAP this coming general election (GE14).

But why focus only on the Chinese, you ask? Well, consider this:

The MIC and other minority groups repeatedly backed the DAP when the chauvinist concern stepped on the tenets of the Islamic Syaria. We can therefore assume that the DAP has also become a mouthpiece for the MIC and all other non-Muslim or non-Malay based parties insofar as matters related to Islam are concerned.

Thus, when we talk about non-Malay parties within the context of Islam in Malaysia, we talk only about the DAP. And as we have seen, when we talk about the DAP, we talk about the Chinese.

Coming to Rais, the PPBM leader cast a shadow of doubt on Hadi without first seeking muzakarah (a discussion) to get an explanation from the PAS president. That effectively means he hurled slander against Hadi, which, in Islam, is a heinous and grave offence.

So tell me, who is “merchandising Islam for narrow politics” – Hadi or Rais?

KUALA LUMPUR: The idea of an all-Malay Cabinet line-up is irrational as it rejects the concept of diversity in politics, Pakatan Harapan leaders have said.

They were referring to PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang who said the federal Cabinet should consist of only Malays as they are the majority race.

In an article written in PAS’s newspaper Harakah on Friday, Hadi said Islam had outlined that a national leader and his Cabinet members must profess the Islamic faith and that the role of non-Muslims should be restricted to management duties.

“An all-Malay Cabinet is a far-out concept in our new political climate and is not rational.